Words of Light and Hope from Helena Crockford LLM
Words of Light and Hope 14th July 2024 Helena Crockford LLM
Today is Sea Sunday. It is a day of remembrance, prayer and celebration, and an opportunity to think about and thank those seafarers who work tirelessly throughout the year bringing us goods we often take for granted. The Mission to Seafarers asks us to remember and pray for seafarers, their families and all who support them.
Psalm 95:3-7 “For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”
Prayer Gracious God, who has given humanity the skill to sail the seas. Keep safe, we pray, all seafarers who bring to us those things necessary for our well-being. Bless the ships in which they sail and their families who wait for them at home. Bring them safely into port having crossed the mighty oceans, and grant them the rest and refreshment that they need after their labours. We ask this in the name of Jesus our Saviour. Amen
T.S.Eliot – from THE DRY SALVAGES (Four Quartets – III) Lady, whose shrine stands on the promontory, Pray for all those who are in ships, thoseWhose business has to do with fish, and Those concerned with every lawful traffic And those who conduct them. Repeat a prayer also on behalf of Women who have seen their sons or husbands Setting forth, and not returning: Figlia del tuo figlio, [daughter of your son] Queen of Heaven. Also pray for those who were in ships, and Ended their voyage on the sand, in the sea’s lips Or in the dark throat which will not reject them Or wherever cannot reach them the sound of the sea bell’s Perpetual angelus.
